Geniza Lab

Legal document: bill of sale for a slave. See also Perry's annotated edition of T-S18J1.17.

Legal document in the hand of Ḥalfon b. Menashshe ha-Levi, dated 1449 (= 1138 CE). A tax-farmer (ḍāmin), Abū l-Surūr Peraḥya b. ʿUlla (known as Abū l-Munā the perfumer b. Ḥasan), grants Abū Isḥāq Avraham b. Yaʿqūb a license to sell and dye silk for 18 dinars per month in a certain quarter of Fustat for the duration of Abū l-Surūr’s tenure in office. Abū l-Surūr promises not to accept any higher offer or to discontinue the lease (paying a fine of 100 dinars if he does so). Abū Isḥāq may subcontract the labour to others if he wishes and Abū l-Surūr agrees to use his influence with the police if any subcontractors evade payment of their dues. Abū l-Surūr reserves for himself the right to employ female brokers (bayyāʿāt, "saleswomen") in the quarter in question. Signed by [...] Kohen, descendant of Yosef Kohen and Natan b. Shemuʾel, and written under the authority of Maṣliaḥ Gaʾon (1127–1139 CE). On verso are a few lines in Arabic.

Draft of a petition to the caliph al-Ḥākim al-Hakim, with tarjama and opening formulae. Verso contains a Hebrew legal deed (see separate entry). From Hibat Allāh b. Abū Manṣūr al-Yahūdī. It reads: ṣalawāt allāh wa-barakātuhu wa-nawāmī zakawātihi wa-afḍal taḥiyyātihi wa-salāmihi ʿalā mawlānā wa- sayyidinā l-Ḥākim bi-amri llāh amīr al-muʾminīn wa-ʿalā ābāʾihi al-ṭāhirīn wa-abnāʾihi al-akramīn. (Information from Rustow, Lost Archive, p. 468 note 15.) Cf. ENA 2742.4 which contains similar petition-like phrases from [...] b. Bū Manṣūr b. Yehuda.

State document in Arabic script, an internal memorandum or report containing multiple hands. Containing (on the last fragment) the signature of the vizier Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad (441 AH/1049–50 CE). The dating is discussed in Stern's article and should be considered definite; it is also corroborated by the caliph's name. The Arabic text is written in five different hands, reflecting administrative procedure. NB: This is a continuous join: T-S Ar.18(2).193 + T-S Ar.30.306 + T-S Ar.30.314. Whether T-S 24.21 and ENA NS 10.31 also join is less clear: they were reused by the same scribe for the same text, but may not have been part of the same state document. If they were, the first two fragments don't join continuously with the last three. Between the lines on recto is a Judaeo-Arabic letter (see separate record, PGPID 16773). On verso is Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni's Kitāb Aḥkām al-Shurūṭ, parallel to the text in SP RNL Evr-Arab. I 2938 fol. 3b. (Information from CUDL and Marina Rustow.) Joins: Marina Rustow.

Petition to the Fatimid vizier al-Afḍal, including the raʾy component and endorsements.

Petition, draft, from an ex-government servant asking for work, from the period of the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim (996–1021) or possibly earlier. Verso: tax receipt in the hand of Mikhaʾil b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ (see separate entry).

Tax receipt, Fatimid, in the hand of Mikhaʾil b. ʿAbd al-Masiḥ, from the caliphate of al-Ḥakim.

State document: End of a Fatimid petition or report from the period of al-Ḥākim (996–1021) or earlier.

Tax receipt from the archive of Abū l-Ḥasan b. Wahb, in the hand of Mikhāʾīl b. ʿAbd al-Masīḥ

Fiscal account to do with sugarcane and a sugar-house. Some to go as taxes to tax-farmers, some to be planted. Three lines at the top: a docket?

State document: On verso, titulature in calligraphic script, including al-khilāfa al-fāṭimiyya, which is rare (maybe hapax) in documentary texts.

Tadhkira (memorandum) from a Fatimid official to another Fatimid official. Tax receipt on verso.

Legal deed for real estate, Mamluk period, with lots of archival process. 710s-750s AH

State document, Fatimid period. Petition or report to a vizier (beginning only), possibly under al-ʿAḍid (see line 4, where the blessing uses the verb ʿaḍada; thanks to Lara Balaa for this observation). (MR)

State decree from the Fatimid chancery, written under al-Ḥākim, al-Ẓāhir or al-Mustanṣir to an official in Egypt regarding a dispute over irrigation canals and access to water — insofar as one can judge. Only the left half of the lines are preserved. About 1.3 meters of what was once a much longer decree. The joins of the decree fragment when pieced together refer to the need of restoring the area surrounding the gulf/bay - 'li ḥāja dāʿiya ilā ʿimārat al-khuluj' and the allotment of irrigation from these canals: 'aqsaṭ min al-rī min hādhihi l-khuluj. Verso: Efrayim b. Shemarya uses and reworks passages from the Sheʾiltot for a sermon. Top of the rotulus is headed Shabbat Bereishit (see separate record). Join: Roni Shweka (bottom six fragments) and Rebecca Sebbagh (top fragment). Before 1055. See also Mosseri VI.117.2, which may belong to the left side of this decree. (MR)

Efrayim b. Shemarya (11th c) uses and reworks passages from the Sheʾiltot of Aḥay of Shabḥa (8th c) for a sermon. Written on a Fatimid decree rotulus (see separate record). The top of verso is headed Shabbat Bereishit, presumably the occasion of the liturgical cycle for which Efrayim needed the sermon. Join: Roni Shweka (bottom six fragments) and Rebecca Sebbagh (top fragment). Before 1055 (death of Efrayim). See also Mosseri VI.117.2, which may belong to the left side of this decree. (MR)

State decree, fragment of right margin, line 3 mentions "this day"

Report to a Fatimid vizier. Khan published T-S K25.221 as the end of petition, but it's impossible to know whether it's a petition or a report. If this join is correct, it's a report. The two fragments are the same size, format, layout and titulature. The differences in the hand on the two documents could be an artifact of the fact that the text on T-S K25.221 is the end of the document and is formulaic, so less carefully written. T-S Ar.22140 was reused for a Judaeo-Arabic commentary on Isaiah 54:1 and 1 Samuel 1:11; T-S K25.221 was reused Hebrew poetry, headed כפיף, and for Arabic accounts. Join: Marina Rustow. (Information from Khan, from CUDL and from Marina Rustow.)

Writing exercise in a chancery hand, two different hands alternating. Encomium to an official. Join: Marina Rustow.

Draft report containing two taqbīl and narratio (inhā’) sections. The first section mentions local residents impeding access with stones. Reused for Targum Onqelos of Numbers 28:26-31